Lenten Reading March 10th, 2016

Reading Guide for Lent

Each day read the Gospel passage for the day and the Psalm passage for the day (you can read them all at once or do one reading in the morning and one in the evening) and use the reflection questions to help process the passage.

The 26th day of Lent

Thursday March 10^th, 2016

Now that we have finished one biography of Jesus, the Book of Luke, we will turn to a second account – the book of Mark.  Mark was written by a disciple named Mark who was a close associate of Peter, one of the closest 12 followers of Jesus.  Marks “Gospel” is full of the stories that Peter told Mark.  We will finish Mark on Easter Sunday.

Gospel Reading:  Mark 2

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

2      A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ²They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷“Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹²He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats With Sinners

¹³Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. ¹⁴As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus Questioned About Fasting

¹⁸Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

¹⁹Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. ²⁰But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

²¹“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If they do, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. ²²And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

²³One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. ²⁴The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

²⁵He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? ²⁶In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

²⁷Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. ²⁸So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Holy Bible : Today's New International Version. 2005. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Psalm Reading:  Psalm 92

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

¹It is good to praise the Lord

and make music to your name, O Most High,

²proclaiming your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night,

³to the music of the ten-stringed lyre

and the melody of the harp.

⁴For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;

I sing for joy at what your hands have done.

⁵How great are your works, Lord,

how profound your thoughts!

⁶Senseless people do not know,

fools do not understand,

⁷that though the wicked spring up like grass

and all evildoers flourish,

they will be destroyed forever.

⁸But you, Lord, are forever exalted.

⁹For surely your enemies, Lord,

surely your enemies will perish;

all evildoers will be scattered.

¹⁰You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox;

fine oils have been poured on me.

¹¹My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;

my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

¹²The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,

they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

¹³planted in the house of the Lord,

they will flourish in the courts of our God.

¹⁴They will still bear fruit in old age,

they will stay fresh and green,

¹⁵proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;

he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”